Sir Richard Spirit
Superstar
In a chaotic meeting Thursday, South Shore residents demanded city officials house immigrants arriving in Chicago on the North Side rather than at a shuttered local school, saying the resources being spent to help them should instead be invested on the South Side.
Officials were prepared to deliver a presentation on the shelter plan at the meeting, which was held at South Shore International College Prep, but as it was set to begin, they were drowned out by audience members yelling, “We don’t care” and “We don’t want them here.”
Others yelled, “Send them back” and “Close the border.” Someone in the crowd held up a sign that read, “Build the wall 2024.”
South Shore residents blast plan to turn former school into shelter for migrants: ‘We don’t want them in this building’
Residents said the neighborhood is in dire need of the resources being used to help asylum-seekers and that the city should instead house them on the North Side.
chicago.suntimes.com
Here the is the Chicago Sun Times editorial board responding to the residents of the meeting,
South Shore residents angry about migrant shelter would make MAGA proud
What a pathetic and embarrassing display of NIMBYism, sounding much like an ugly “America First” rally for Donald Trump. One man even held a sign that read “Build the wall 2024.” That image alone is certain to put a smug smile on the faces of many MAGA types.
The South Side has suffered from decades of neglect. There is no argument on that. But the entire city is scrambling right now to find space to temporarily house the thousands of immigrants arriving here. This is not a time for “whataboutism.”
South Shore High School is empty at the moment, so demanding that migrants to be sent to the North Side instead — where many of the alternate shelters are already located — is unreasonable.
South Shore residents angry about migrant shelter would make MAGA proud
The community meeting where people shouted ‘We don’t want them here’ and one person held up a ‘Build the Wall’ sign was a pathetic and embarrassing display of NIMBYism in a city that prides itself on its racial and ethnic diversity.
chicago.suntimes.com
Migrant crisis ‘one of the most challenging’ problems facing Chicago’s new mayor, chief of staff says
Priority No. 1 for the new mayor is to find alternative space so asylum-seekers, including young families, no longer have to sleep on the floors Chicago’s police district stations.
Some of the stations are so crowded with migrants, everyday Chicagoans can’t even make their way to the front desk to file a police report.
The $51 million in surplus funding the City Council’s Budget Committee has agreed to transfer to the migrant crisis will carry Johnson only through June.
“That’s another aspect of this very complicated situation. ... There’s no money set aside for something of this magnitude,” Guidice said.
“Short of a federal disaster declaration, there is no ability to tap into other funds.”
Immigrant crisis ‘one of the most challenging’ problems facing Chicago’s new mayor, chief of staff says
Rich Guidice, who spent nearly 20 years running the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said he has never seen an emergency quite like the thousands of asylum-seekers who have poured into Chicago since September, with scores more on the way.
chicago.suntimes.com
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